Oh, for a muse of fanboys
Apr. 24th, 2013 04:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakNow I already knew that the international BBC iplayer doesn't work in the US, but what I just found out via my ten days in Venice is that the tv shows and films said player shows in Germany are somewhat different than those it shows in Italy. (Basically: the Italians get Sherlock and Wallander, but only one season of New Tricks. In Germany we get neither of the former, but all six (currently, with more coming) of the later. Presumably the BBC figures it can sell more dvds of the former in Germany?
Yesterday was Shakespeare's death day which is traditionally celebrated as his birthday as well. Rather fittingly, I spotted this article about how James Franco fanboys Shakespeare, River Phoenix, Gus van Sant and Orson Welles by persuading Gus van Sant (when the later was shooting Milk with Franco) to hand over all the unused My Private Idaho footage so he could cut his own fan version of van Sant's modern take on the Henriad. (This article also reminded me that River Phoenix' character is the equivalent of Poins, and that I loved his character while I solidly dislike Ned Poins the fratboy. I think the difference is that Poins isn't tragic and also callous.) Which in turn was van Sant wanting to do a modern version of Chimes at Midnight back in the day, and Chimes at Midnight was Orson Welles cutting the Henriad, six months ago gracing your tv screens as The Hollow Crown, as The Tragedie of Sir John Falstaff.
Anyway, I am somewhere between awed and amused that the Franco version due to his River Phoenix crush comes in two editions, one of which is a twelve hours film. I kid you not. The late Erich von Stroheim would approve, of course, and so would Max von Mayerling. Orson would be somewhere amused, envious and suddenly fearing some Anthony Perkins fanboy would deliver a 12 hours version of The Trial...
m the original twenty-five hours, I cut one film that was twelve hours long and another that was 102 minutes.
Yesterday was Shakespeare's death day which is traditionally celebrated as his birthday as well. Rather fittingly, I spotted this article about how James Franco fanboys Shakespeare, River Phoenix, Gus van Sant and Orson Welles by persuading Gus van Sant (when the later was shooting Milk with Franco) to hand over all the unused My Private Idaho footage so he could cut his own fan version of van Sant's modern take on the Henriad. (This article also reminded me that River Phoenix' character is the equivalent of Poins, and that I loved his character while I solidly dislike Ned Poins the fratboy. I think the difference is that Poins isn't tragic and also callous.) Which in turn was van Sant wanting to do a modern version of Chimes at Midnight back in the day, and Chimes at Midnight was Orson Welles cutting the Henriad, six months ago gracing your tv screens as The Hollow Crown, as The Tragedie of Sir John Falstaff.
Anyway, I am somewhere between awed and amused that the Franco version due to his River Phoenix crush comes in two editions, one of which is a twelve hours film. I kid you not. The late Erich von Stroheim would approve, of course, and so would Max von Mayerling. Orson would be somewhere amused, envious and suddenly fearing some Anthony Perkins fanboy would deliver a 12 hours version of The Trial...
m the original twenty-five hours, I cut one film that was twelve hours long and another that was 102 minutes.
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Date: 2013-04-24 02:15 pm (UTC)I think the Phoenix character is sympathetic because he's a POV character and because he has something at stake in the story. I mean, I think you could write a canon-compliant story with a sympathetic Poins which doesn't downplay his callousness or make him a woobie (I've read them), but I agree there really isn't enough to the character in the play to make him inherently sympathetic.
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Date: 2013-04-24 04:52 pm (UTC)In fact, I'd say that Phoenix' rather than Keanu Reeves' character who has a quest that drives the majority of the story. Which is the reverse of Poins and Hal.
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Date: 2013-04-24 03:24 pm (UTC)I was always rather sceptical about the birth and death being on the same day, but I seem to remember that last time I was in Stratford I saw the parish register on show in the church, and he was christened around the right time. Hang on, here's a piece on the entry. Christening recorded as April 26, birthdate not clear but would have to be a few days earlier, so if it wasn't the same as the date of his death it must have been close.
Of course, he himself did that to Cassius, who announces just before the Battle of Philippi "This is my birthday, as this very day/Was Cassius born." I've no idea whether Shakespeare invented that on the spot or found it in a source, eg Plutarch (though I note that Wikipedia dutifully records Cassius's birthday as October 3, year unknown, to match the date of Philippi!)
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Date: 2013-04-24 04:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-24 05:00 pm (UTC)